“The lottery registration system has been very successful, and gives all runners an equal chance of acquiring a spot, no matter when they signed up,” said race director Jim Marino from Philadelphia's Department of Parks and Recreation.

This year marks the third straight race where sign-up for the nation's largest 10-miler will be done through a lottery system.

In 2012, it took just five hours for all the spots in the race to go to the 34,000-plus participants. This year there will be about 40,000 spots up for grabs. It costs $43 (or more on the post lottery black market) for a race bib.

There will only be one entry allowed per person and lists of accepted and rejected runners will be posted on BroadStreetRun.com later this month.